[Woodcarver] Relief Carving

[Ivan Whillock]

Hi Patty,

There are varying definitions, depending on whom you cite as your authority.  Generally speaking, deep relief and high relief are the same. 

(A person might use deep relief to describe carving down into the material, like wood or stone; high relief might be used to describe a sculpture that is built up, as with clay.

Most authorities seem to classify relief in three categories:     1. Bas relief (or low relief), 2. Mezzo relief, (or middle relief), and 3. Alto relief (or high relief).

Bas relief is like that you see on coins, with the figure just above the surface.

In mezzo relief roughly half the figure rises above the background.

Alto relief is where a figure, or some of it, is fully away from the background.

There are lots of "tweener" definitions--related to undercutting and other matters, but the three categories above are pretty standard in the discussion of relief sculpture, whether in wood, bronze or stone.


Ivan Whillock Studio
122 NE 1st Avenue
Faribault, MN  55021
Visit my website at
http://www.whillock.com
Visit my Picture Trail album at
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=ivancarve
  From: Patti Landmann 
  Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 2:05 PM
  To: Woodcarver Mail List-New 
  Subject: [Woodcarver] Relief Carving


  Gentle Subscribers :-) Please support our List with a donation: http://wwwoodcarver.com/WWWList/WWWList.html




------------------------------------------------------------------------------


        Oh Most Learned Ones,

        If this has been covered before,  I guess I missed it.  What is the difference between "Deep" Relief and "High" Relief???

        Please explain or point me in the right direction to read all about it!

        Thanks!


        Patti Landmann 

        lowvillecarver at yahoo.com  


        http://www.picturetrail.com/lowvillecarver.............for carvings, family and more 
        http://lagrandmama.blogspot.com/...........for my Grandma experiences 
        http://picasaweb.google.com/lowvillecarver...........for Bird, Deer & Flower Photos from our house
        http://www.centuryinter.net/treasures/.........for my old dated web site,still good stuff:

       




------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Woodcarver mailing list
  Woodcarver at six.pairlist.net
  http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/woodcarver
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/woodcarver/attachments/20080715/f1082690/attachment.html>